Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

is pawned for more ammunition at the souk, a group of women from
the nearby village recognise the vials of vaccine. They confiscate it
and undertake a treacherous journey through sleet and snow to
dispatch the medicine to Darrieu, who is then able to save his own
child.
The arrival of the vaccine represents a new kind of co-operation
between the concerned Berber mothers and Darrieu’s efforts. The
Berber women’s retrieval of the vaccine serves the greater community,
but the immediacy of their trek is presented as an expression of
concern for the well being of Françoise and Pierre Darrieu’s infant.
Better acclimated to the rigors of the environment than the French
medical supply truck that is stuck in a snowdrift, the heroic Berber
women contribute to the effectiveness of French medical agency. This
scene demonstrates that the Berber mothers’ actions indirectly
support the process of conversion from traditional beliefs and
customs to French colonial medical and social renewal. The close
association between vaccination and colonisation recalls some of the
earliest French inoculation campaigns in Algeria in the midnineteenth
century, in which the invasiveness of medical and
hygienic efforts were directly in line with military pacification efforts.
Once the epidemic is vanquished, Itto’s daughter is taken back to the
Darrieu household for protection as Hamou prepares for his final
stand against the French. Hamou encourages everyone under his
command to surrender, but remains a valiant warrior until the bitter
end. At this point in the film Itto returns to ask for her father’s
forgiveness and stands in solidarity with him against the French
forces. Tragically, Hamou and Itto are shot down by two stray bullets,
fired against the orders of the French colonel, who respects Hamou’s
courage. In the penultimate scene of the film, Françoise adopts Itto’s
daughter and offers her breast to her, symbolising mother France
(Françoise) nurturing the growth of a newborn Morocco.
Although geographic mastery and military pacification is a
precondition for meaningful social and medical reform in these films,
the healthy future of children serves as the final and most important
cause. Children represent universal salvation, and they are shown to
be nurtured best by French medical treatment and education. For
example, Benoît-Levy’s Conte de la mille et une nuits does not merely
demonstrate that Mohamed ben Chegir can be cured of syphilis but
that he can still become the proud father of many healthy children.
In Itto, Darrieu’s newborn child represents an evolving co-operation
between Berber mothers and a French father and mother, who also
represent French medical assistance; Françoise’s final offering of her
breast to Itto’s daughter symbolises triumphant French colonial
humanitarianism. Françoise’s own conversion from a sceptical French
citizen to a committed colonial humanitarian turns on the power of
motherhood, a vocation that blurs national boundaries.
Vaccination was an all-purpose antidote protecting children and it
became an important theme in the oeuvre of Benoît-Lévy and
22 Journal of Film Preservation / 63 / 2001